Pendant light shade re-do!

You know the shades they have for the lights that hang down low over your bar or kitchen sink, pendant lights? They have the best shades, very artsy! Thick, nice, clear, or frosted textured and or smooth.

Many colors!

Well, what happens when you break one and you have to replace all the shades because you can not find the ones you have anymore...out of style?

You replace the Pendant lamps with new shades, get a face lift for the kitchen,  and make something out of those shades.

Lol!

I got these from a friend that found a bunch of them. Gave a few to me at clay day, and told me to make something, it was so funny because a couple of days before I had pulled out a Lamp shade from a floor lamp that I absoluetly loved and had broken. I could not through the glass away. I loved it! I was going to and then this hit me. Like a slap upside the head it came to me.

I went to clay day and then more glass lamp shades came my way. bam! There is the idea, ready and waiting in the back of my trap.

There is a saying that if you see something three times look in to it! It is trying to tell you something.

I don't really wait for three anymore! More that once within a week I check it out!

Here is the result of the shades and below is the large one I am doing. About punch bowl size I would say. Perfect for table top, with dried flowers or ornamental fruit in glass.

Wednesday Wonder- pallet palaces

I will show you my other pressie from OWOH tomorrow.
I want to show you something today that really blows my mind. There is a blog on-line that my friend Pörrö turned me on to about recycled art.

It is called, oddly enough, Recyclart ;-D or http://www.recyclart.org/
There are all these pages and pages of art using recycled materials for art, functional and aesthetic purposes both. I spent an hour on there this afternoon and have been going back on and off since then.
Pretty impressive with my attention span, oh look pretty shiny thing! LOL!
Someone once told me that if I was from the animal kingdom I would be a magpie or a crow. And you know what? I can totally relate to that. It is truly amazing that I get as much done as I do.
Anyway... LOL! This place kept my attention for a long time and I think if you love art and you love recycling that you will love this website.
There are tons of DIY projects and lots of eye candy and reasons to recycle. Not only that, when I saw some of the things up there, it made me think, "man, that took a lot of bottle caps" or "geesh, that takes tons of bottles to do that" and the reality of all the waste we have on this planet slammed me right in the face. 
Now, I am a good girl, I recycle a lot. I save the strangest things, and I get ridiculed often by my children about the behavior of saving some things, not using paper plates, and bitching about doing dishes, wearing clothes until they are full of holes, sewing my socks up when they have holes, not dying my hair anymore, and on and on and on. I am also on a very tight budget and this helps a lot too.
I like to eat fast food once in awhile, but because of budget constraints, I can not. I see now how much waste is involved with eating fast food. And they(fast food joints of America) have huge dumpsters out side of their establishments and they are full all of the time.
Those dumpsters do though provide food for the homeless around here, so I am glad for that!
Anyway... speaking of homeless, if I ever lose my house, I could live in this.

http://www.recyclart.org/2011/01/i-beamdesign-pallet-house/
go see the rest of the pictures. Amazing cost 500$

Sit in these chairs


http://www.recyclart.org/2011/01/diy-adirondack-chair/
the PDF to make these is only 5$ and the link is above. Check it out!

Sit on this sofa, looks comfy right?


http://www.recyclart.org/2011/01/sofa-palet/

 Have this for a coffee table

http://www.recyclart.org/2011/02/god-saved-my-pallet/
go see the rest of the pictures. God save the Queen!

I could have this for my office.
http://www.recyclart.org/2010/10/pallet-office-by-most-architecture/


Madi could sleep in this.

http://www.recyclart.org/2010/07/diy-toddler-pallet-bed/
You have to admit, this is very cute!

Maybe this could be my addition


http://www.recyclart.org/2010/03/pallet-house/
Wait, this is better than my house, check out the picture at night.

Queen of heart coffee table, no way, I am switching with the other coffee table and putting the other one in the guest house!

http://www.recyclart.org/2010/03/pallet-coffee-tables-custom/
I just love that I can roll this around! Go see the other ones.



Wait, maybe this house is much better.

http://www.recyclart.org/2009/11/manifesto-house-made-with-pallets-and-shipping-containers/
You have to go see the other pictures. Take a coffee/tea with you! You can see the rest of the details there.

I think you are getting the pallet picture here. I could keep going, there are tons more of these pallet recycles, but the other recycle projects that are up there are worth taking a gander at.
Oh, I almost forgot, I would like to have you all over for a barbecue, heck invite the whole world!


http://www.recyclart.org/2011/01/the-world-bbq/
All pictures from Recyclart website here
http://www.recyclart.org/
Thank you!

 This is waste. It is beautiful.
Take a coffee/tea and some of your valuable and precious time and open your mind to changing the world. You and I can do it!
My many thanks to all of the people with the brilliant minds who came up with all of this beauty and  for opening my mind.
All of the info and people involved can be found by following the links given.
My sincere and profound gratitude to Recyclart http://www.recyclart.org/ for taking the time to do this and Pörrö for taking the time to share this with me.
You are all lights in my life!

Wednesday Wonder-Gum Wrapper Chain to Arm Candy

OK, I used to make gum wrapper chains, fun, everyone did it when I was in school. I just made long chains though.


Not as long as this guy though. Gary Duschl
Damn Gary, that is a lot of gum!




photo from Gary's website, click on his pic to go there.




My daughter has a frame that someone made her while he was in jail. I think it is most beautiful and quite inventive, considering it is all gum wrappers.

Gum wrapper art is not just Jail house fare any more though.
Oh wow, gum wrapper wear has become ultra chic and very cool. I love this Tootsie roll bag from Nahui Ollin. You have got to check this out. These bags are nice, very nice.
The detailing and finishing on them is wonderful and they are quirky, I like quirky.


Photo courtesy of Nahui Ollin



I mean seriously folks, this is a nice bag! And way to recycle kids.


Here is the  Junior Mint line, I wonder if it is minty fresh too?


Photo courtesy of Nahui Ollin

Here is a great tutorial and information from eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/how_5187867_make-crafts-gum-candy-wrappers.html

Paper clip jar and paper clips or boomarkers Part 3

Continuing from part 2...

You will need two 1/2" balls of the mixed green clay for each paper clip you make. 

Flatten both balls with your finger. Lay the paper clip on the one of flattened balls.

Cover the paper clip and the flattened ball with the other flattened ball.

Press in one of the animal face buttons.

You will notice that all of the faces are different and you may need to change the shape of the balls a little after you press them over the paper clip and before you press in the button. You do not want to put the paper clip too high towards the middle of the first flattened ball either or you will have trouble when you press the shank of the button in to the clay.

Once you get all of the buttons made in to paper clips that you think you will need bake the lid and the paper clips on a piece of corrugated cardboard box lid in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 30 minutes, shut off the oven and let cool in the oven.

While the pieces are cooling, condition and roll out a piece of the opaque white Cernit. It will depend on how big the little jar is and how much you want to say. You can press the noodles in to the white and cut around what you said or you can cut the clay to fit on the front of the jar and make the noodles fit, which is what I did.

I have put it on the front of the glass and then I trimmed the edges.

I then placed the noodles in one at a time to form the words. You can use a pencil eraser to press them in to the clay.

Keep adding the noodles until you say what you have to say!

Once I have finished I roll the jar and the clay across my work surface to smooth the clay and press in all the letters evenly. Gentle now.
Bake this in the pre-heated 275 degree oven for 30 minutes and shut off the oven and let cool.

While you are waiting for the plaque to cool, take the green felt and another baby food jar lid and trace around the lid with a felt pen.

Cut inside the line that you have traced about 3/16".

Place glue in the top of the lid and spread it all the way to the edges with your finger.

Add the felt and press it in there well, making sure you do all the way around the edge of the felt.

Take the plaque off of the jar when it is cool and pick out all of the letters with a knife.

Brush the Pearl Emerald Green Lumiere into the letters and all over the front of the plaque. Wipe off the excess with an rag or towel.

When the paint has dried, place glue on the back of the plaque, rub a smooth layer on the back, and attach to the front of the glass.









Tie a bow with the ribbon around the jar at the top.

A cute gift and trash to treasure.

Paper clip jar and paper clips or boomarkers Part 2

Continuing from part 1...

Take another 1/2" ball of the mixed green.

Flatten with your finger.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Make two indentations in the flattened ball about a 1/4" apart.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pinch a point out of the clay between the indentations.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now make a point in the clay on each side of the middle point.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

With the skewer point make the indentations deeper and longer by laying the skewer across the clay there.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mark the veins with the back of the blade.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Add to the top of the jar.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Another 1/2" ball of the mixed green. Roll into a teardrop and flatten.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mark the center vein with the back of the blade or a dullish knife. (be careful please)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mark the side veins. Add to jar lid.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Another 1/2" ball of clay. Roll into a longish teardrop and flatten. Mark indentations in the out side of the leaf with the point of a bamboo skewer.
Hold skewer perpendicular to the teardrop of clay.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mark center vein with the back of the blade. Add to jar.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Roll another 1/2" ball of the mixed green in to a longish teardrop and flatten with your finger.

Mark the center vein with the back of the blade. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cut the side veins with the blade. Cut all the way through.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Grab the thick end and gently pull off the work surface. This will spread the sections a little.
Add leaves to the jar lid.
Leave the faces poking out.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Stay tuned for part 3...